Environment Committee on Dec. 1st, 2025

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Well, I, as Minister of Environment, will take into account everything that's come through the consultations and come up with a strong policy to make sure that Canadians do have access to zero-emissions vehicles.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

As the minister, you don't support or not support. You're not prepared to say that in a committee setting.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

As a minister, I'm not going to pre-reveal what the policy will be when I am completing it.

Do I support zero-emissions vehicles as part of the future—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

I never asked about that—

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

—not only in Canada, but around the world? Yes.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

I asked specifically about the mandates, though. It was about the mandates specifically. Do you support them, yes or no?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I am in a period of review. I will be releasing the full policy shortly.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Okay, thank you, Minister.

Minister, you talked about other countries. Mr. Kingston testified that comparing Canada to Norway is a total outlier and not a fair comparison, citing Norway's small and urbanized population, short driving distances, massive subsidies and the oil fund finance incentives that Canada would never do.

Given this evidence, why does your department continue to cite Norway as a model when the auto sector says that it's fundamentally not comparable to Canadian realities?

Please answer quickly, Minister. Thank you.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

There are a few pieces to that.

The first part is that I think it is worthwhile to look at the fact that Norway, as of today—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

It's not comparing apples to apples.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Norway is a northern country that does have rural parts.

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

It doesn't have the same vast distances that we do.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

What I'm just saying is that there are lessons to be learned from a northern country—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

In my riding, some people have to drive 1,000 kilometres to get to a specialty hospital. That's 1,000 kilometres, Minister, so how are the realities the same? I don't understand.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Maybe I can help you on that.

What I am saying is that the regulations have been set out by percentages. You would assume that you would see the pickup first—and I think that's borne out when you look at numbers—in more urban areas with more people and in areas where there's more charging infrastructure—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

Yes, but the mandates are being applied right across the country, though, and they're being applied to rural communities as well, even the percentages. At no point does it make sense for them.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

The standards didn't require 20% in every region of the country, for example. It was as a country in total.

Then you would expect that the uptake would begin in areas where—

[Carol Anstey, Conservative, Long Range Mountains, NL]

However, eventually it's 100%—yes or no?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

First of all, under the review that we're doing....

My time is up, but I will just say that ultimately, other countries are moving towards zero-emissions vehicles. We are seeing uptake right around the world, so Canada should be ready not only to produce those vehicles but also to make sure that Canadians have access to those vehicles.

[The Chair, Liberal, Angelo Iacono]

Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Grant, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for being here today.

I have two children who are going to be growing up in the next little while, and one of them is actually going to be joining the workforce in the next three or four years. As we shift to a low-carbon economy, workers and those who are about to enter the workforce want to know what will happen to benefit them.

How is our government ensuring that clean economy investments translate to good middle-class jobs right across Canada from coast to coast to coast?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

When different organizations looked at the statistics for the jobs that will be available in a clean economy, they found that there are substantial jobs right across, and in different types of work. I believe there was one estimate that there would be about 400,000 jobs created. I think that was an RBC study.

One of the bigger issues we face is actually how we can fill all these new opportunities that are going to come into being with these new types of projects. This goes to a whole stretch of things.

For example, I was talking about clean-tech companies in Canada. Those represent a bunch of exciting jobs for Canadians who want to jump into that area.

There are also a lot in the skilled trades. When we look at how to build this electrical grid for the future, it's important that we have the people who are ready to do that and have people who can retrofit homes so that Canadians can save on their energy costs and at the same time reduce emissions.

One thing I was really excited about in this budget is the youth climate corps, because that's a real chance for young people to get the skills, be paid until they get the skills, be able to have an active role in reducing emissions and move towards knowing how we can protect our communities from the impacts of climate change.

On the youth climate corps, I had a chance when I was in Montreal to meet with many young people from diverse organizations and groups who were doing different things on campus or in different kinds of work environments. They were really excited to talk about these opportunities and how we can make sure we're setting up Canadians and young Canadians to meet those new opportunities, and also how they can have a say in framing what that will be.

The youth climate corps has been pushed for quite a while. Having the project in place in this budget is a big step forward, and I would say that it's something we can build on for other job opportunities to set up youth in the best way.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Yes, absolutely, it is. My riding has the University of British Columbia, and I had heard that as well from a number of youth there.

To follow up on that, Minister, how do climate policies help attract clean investment, create skilled jobs and strengthen our green economy in Quebec and right across Canada?

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

One of the pieces that I keep seeing is that if we have clear policies, first of all, that helps. In this budget, we expanded—some of them were already there—a number of investment tax credits that can actually really help with building out these opportunities. For example, if we're talking about clean technology and the ability to get tax credits toward clean technology, that can help industry to build up toward that. The clean electricity investment tax credit is promised in this budget.

One piece that I think is really important is it includes the public utilities when it comes to interprovincial transmission pieces, which can really work to help support what we need for the future. What I hear over and over again is that clean electricity—Canada has one of the cleanest grids in the world—attracts investment to Canada. It's something that Canadian companies can use as a selling point when they're trying to trade with other countries because countries are looking for products that are low carbon. Having a clean electricity grid helps support it.

I was really excited that we have a clean electricity investment tax credit and the fact that it actually expands to cover public utilities when we're talking about how we build across the country.

[Wade Grant, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Quickly, within 15 seconds, Minister, could you explain what steps have been taken to ensure the consultations on projects reach the communities concerned and the results are published effectively?